RE: History of Atheism
April 28, 2019 at 5:04 pm
(This post was last modified: April 28, 2019 at 5:06 pm by Belacqua.)
(April 28, 2019 at 6:59 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: In the UK you were fined for not going to church until 1842.
A lot of people didn't go to church, and never paid the fine. That seems to be one of those laws that remain on the books a long time, even after enforcement has stopped. If you have any source to show that it was generally applied, I'd be interested to see it. I know for a fact that most of the people from that era whom I've studied didn't attend church and didn't pay a fine for it.
Notice that in the movement to repeal that you link to, the fact that one man has been arrested under the law has attracted great public outcry. If the law were commonly enforced and approved of in general, that wouldn't be the case.
(But it's interesting to see that the man proposing repeal is Monckton Milnes. He was an interesting guy. Very learned, and very fond of porn.)
